Tours

Grab a blanket and load up the basket: it’s summer in London and the parks are beckoning.

It’s an essential feature of British summertime – or so believes Anis Mlaouhi who, as head of private dining at Dukes hotel in Mayfair, fills as many as 15 picnic baskets in a day. As the man behind the hampers, it’s Mlaouhi’s job to give guests a taste of the great British picnic by laying on a spread straight from the hotel's kitchens.

"It's an integral part of the British experience," he says. "The location is important - a lot of people ask to face Buckingham Palace, for instance. But the food is everything. They eat, and they are happy!"

And Dukes guests aren't the only ones, with a small but ever-growing number of London hotels getting in on the game. Here, we round up some of the best hotel hampers you can find in the capital.